Rick Perry Said Something Nice to Hillary Clinton Eighteen Years Ago

We don’t know how it happened, but the Daily Caller has begun to develop a very specialized niche for itself: Old letters in which Republican presidential candidates say complimentary things to the Clintons. In April, they ran a 2009 note from Jon Huntsman to Bill Clinton in which the former Utah governor praises the former president’s “experience, sense of history and brilliant analysis of world events.” Today, they have a letter that Rick Perry sent to Hillary Clinton in 1993:

In a letter to Clinton, who is now U.S. Secretary of State, Perry wrote: “I think your efforts in trying to reform the nation’s health care system are mostcommendable.”

“I would like to request that the task force give particular consideration to the needs of the nation’s farmers, ranchers, and agriculture workers, and other members of rural communities,” Perry continued, noting his administration’s focus on economic development for rural Texans. “Rural populations have a high proportion of uninsured people, rising health care costs, and often experience lack ofservices.”

This will not hurt Perry at all, for four reasons. One, it was eighteen years ago. Two, unlike Huntsman, Perry doesn’t have a reputation as someone with liberal sympathies that this can play into. Three, he didn’t even say anything about the substance of Clinton’s health-care reform plan, just that it was “commendable” to try to reform the system in some way, which is hardly controversial. Four, this hardly even registers as a blip on the radar screen next to the Spruce Goose ofRomneycare.

Nevertheless, we anxiously await the Daily Caller’s next addition its growing collection of GOP–Clinton correspondence — perhaps a birthday card for Roger Clinton written by NewtGingrich.